Yarn, Stash and Rachael Ray

So I started my day at the laundromat. I had the wash done by 8:30 a.m. I brought it home, put it away and then called Mom. I then went up to C.C. & Co. I signed up for the Boo Club and purchased a little stash. I also purchased the yarn pictured below. Everything was on sale. They are getting rid of their yarn so I got the yarn 50% off! The fabric was also 50% off, the leaflets were 30% off and then I got a package of Piecemaker needles and 2 binder rings and they were 15% off. The fabric is a nice size piece of Lugana 28ct, it is an over-dyed from Zweigart called "Dusk". I am thinking of a Halloween piece, it may even be big enough for the Lizzie Kate Boo club designs. I am thrilled with my stash.



I then went up to CVS and got my medicated Chapstik, batteries for my camera, plastic cutlery and some peppermints. I got my employee discount too! Then I was tired. I was so jazzed today and really did well as far as physical activity. My back started fussing at me and I came home and laid down to take a nap. My Ghost Hunters isn't on tonight and that is a drag!!

I had been looking on-line for a free knitting or crocheting pattern for a drawstring ditty bag, the kind I used to carry in junior high/high school. I found this pattern: http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/bags/bag-bamboozle-weebag.html

I didn't want to buy the yarn on-line due to shipping charges. I found the yarn pictured above with Carolyn's help (at C.C.'s). It is an Italian acrylic/cotton blend and I will have to use 2 strands instead of 1. The yarn it called for is a chunkier strand. The Bamboozle yarn is a bamboo yarn which is very interesting to me and the one skein is only 90 yards and the one I got is 170 meters which converts to 185 yards, so I have plenty.

Oh yes I am a fool for cooking magazines, recipes, cookbooks! Best Deal Magazines has Rachel Ray's magazine "Everyday With Rachael Ray", 10 issue subscription for $7.29 today only. Guess what I subscribed to?

I put clean bedding on the bed. I also didn't want doggies on bed so I put a empty laundry basket on the hassock (which allows the girls to get up on the bed). Well when I laid down for my nap the lovely Rose had her nose wedged between the basket and the chair looking so longingly at me and horrified I would nap without her. What a ham bone!

Well Happy 2009 to all outside the Lilac Thicket. We will be inside tonight, imbibing on Diet Pepsi and chips. If lucky we will make it to, oh say 9 p.m. before we fall asleep. God Bless!!

Goals, Great Stash, Good 2009 Thoughts

Isn't this the prettiest poinsettia design? It is a Ellen Maurer Stroh design. I think I need it! Today I ordered another design from her called "Heart of Roses and Daisies" at Just Needlin'. I also ordered the Q-Snap extenders and 5 packages of the Piecemaker needles in size 26.

Yesterday's post alluded to goals I have set for 2009. Here are 18 goals I have set so far:

1-Make gifts, do not buy them

2-Read a Purpose Driven Life in 40 days--started 12/20/08

3-Set a weekly goal to clean a small space in the house, God doesn't like a dirty girl

4-Be the eye of the storm, calm and quiet, minding my own life and business

5-Read one book for pleasure-yesterday I bought Michael Creighton's "Next"

6-Sew one outfit

7-Start a gift idea notebook where all my ideas are in one place

8-Save $1000.00

9-NO PAYDAY LOANS, be a wise conservator of my hard earned dollars

10-Regular oil changes in the car

11-Walk 1 trip around the call center each workday

12-Keep my car clean on the inside, God doesn't like a dirty girl

13-Clean the garage so I can fit the car in it next winter

14-Bake a different batch of cookies, once a month

15-Wash curtains and walls, God doesn't like a dirty girl

16-NO unexcused work absences

17-Share my Blessings donate to Harvesters, City Union Mission & Humane Society

18-Spend a mere 5 minutes each day with God reading His book

Now I plan to review my goals through out the coming year and check on my progress. I want to make all of the above good habits.

I have packed up all my Christmas decorations on my desk and I have all my books and magazines at the ready. I have worked all my follow-ups and will have to call back my Adopt a Customer after 12:30 to see if the prescription I ordered this past Tuesday came in the mail today.

So here at the Lilac Thicket we have etched in stone my goals for a wonderful new year. I expect great and lovely blessings the year through. Happy Lilac Thoughts my dear readers!

Christmas, Clean Clothing, Crashing Cutie Girl

Just a brief post since it has been a couple of weeks since my last post. The picture above is just a pretty winter picture that came with one of my software programs. I can't say that I have been caught up in all the Christmas hype, but it effects me none the less.


I was very blessed with gifts this year, from Tinker boots to a lovely warm coat and lots of money/gift certificates. My sister in law made some lovely angel earrings for me and then a pretty cloudy green stone bracelet and matching earrings. I received a pretty pink shawl, a idea book of hand made hand bags, bras (!), Avon products, a beautiful stone hand crafted pendant which is red and black, a handbag that has pockets on the outside for photos, or needlework. My girls got treats and their special Christmas beatings.


Rose rolled off the bed Tuesday night and hurt her already arthritic hip. I gave her an extra dose of her Rimadyl and today she is so much better. When I was cleaning off a table I found a squeaky toy. Well when she heard that she leaped straight up without a hitch and ran over to get it. The toy disappeared outside to get a Britney burial, I am certain. Speak of the doggie, here she is nudging my elbow as I type.


I am in the midst of coming up with my goals for 2009. I will share them later! Resolutions are too easy to overlook, I like goals. One of my goals I already started. I spend 5 minutes with God and his good book each day. Well I have kept that up for the past 5 days. I figure I need to grow closer to my Father since He has blessed me beyond measure.


I went up to the laundromat this morning and washed just enough clothing for 7 days. I just didn't have the heart to do it all. I received my gas bill, $217.00. Yikes!!


Well my dear ones, this is a bit for now here at the wonderful Lilac Thicket. May love and peace be your constant companion for the upcoming year. God Bless Y'all!!

Blogs, Blustery Winds and Beautiful Candles

So the picture above is the nice candles I purchased for my Secret Santa gift at work. They were half price so I got the 2 smaller ones for $3.00 each and the larger one for $4.00. I really got a lot for my $10 limit, don't you think? Mom and I put the sleeves around them and tied pieces of jute about the paper sleeve. On the ends of the jute you can see the little elephant charms we strung on them. Of course it has a matching gift bag and tag. The hand made graph below will be in a clear plastic tag holder. The work swipe badge will be on one side and the design below will be on the other side. She likes her astrology sign so there is a crab and the symbols that represent Cancer plus her name. I am stitching it on brown perforated paper. I haven't decided on the floss color yet.

I was fussing around on the Internet this morning, visiting some of the blogs I like. I love the blogs which have innovative finishings of the handiwork. The French stitchers are SO outside the box with the finishing ideas. Cross Stitch Happy (http://www.xstitchhappy.com/) is very generous and she has many designs she has created and they are available free of charge. Her latest is "Friendship Heart Scissor Fob". The index is on the right side of blog with links to her free designs.

A German blog called "Kissy Cross" (http://kissycross.twoday.net/) is another generous blogger who shares her creations at no charge. There is a link on the right hand side which will take you to her free designs.

Of course this is the time of the year when many generous designers share their plans for Stitch Alongs for the next year. The above design is one of those SAL's which started this month and will continue with the last monthly chapter in July 2009. The first installment is available at http://gazette94.blogspot.com/ . At Gazette 94 there are many free designs also from this talented stitcher and I really love this SAL. I like seeing what the total piece looks like before stitching it. I would hate to waste my time only to find I really didn't like the elements. This one is not to be missed in my opinion.

The wind has become very gusty here in the Lilac Thicket. I was peering through the Lilac branches and saw the fallen leaves spinning like a cyclone headed north down the street. The leaves are now heading south which means our temperature is dropping. The skies are grey and I know a storm is heading our way. The Girlz are busy sleeping, not wanting to venture out of the Thicket and get their well coiffed fur mussed up! Well I will close and get busy with some stitching or other industrious activity here in the fragrant Lilac Thicket. Salutations!

Pantie Waists, candles and gangs of snowflakes

This is the nasty sight I woke up to Wednesday morning. Two inches of snow and they called off school. Let me tell you we are raising a bunch of people that cannot tolerate anything other than optimal lives on this planet. I remember in 1975 we went to school in a raging snow storm. The snow was up to the knees and blowing all over the place and we were in a very cold school bus going to school. Now I will tell you that at that time I lived in the same community I live today. Today the roads are MUCH better, not the same rural roads we had to traverse then. The superintendent of the district used to say if he could get out of his driveway that there would be school! We didn't have Hummer's in those days either! Parents and kids today are a bunch of pantie waists! I will scream it from the roof tops, Y'ALL ARE INTOLERANT PANTIE WAISTS!!!! YOU ARE RAISING WIMPS AND YOU ARE WIMPS!!!!! Your children's lives are no more precious than the children in 1975!! The only difference is you are a bunch of pampered poodles!


Okay with that out of my system I accidentally organized my spare bedroom. I went in looking for a theme notebook and ended up straightening it up so I could find it. Lo and behold I found stuff I forgot about. I found a ton of cross stitch stuff! It got me to thinking about not buying anymore stash. I have some forgotten cute stuff I bought. I am afraid if I don't purchase the cute stuff I see today, it will be gone in 6 months. If our society should break down in the next 6 months I want to make sure I have enough needlework to calm my nerves and keep me content. If roving bands of thugs find me in my hideout, at least I will die content and with a ton of stash to pillow my rotting corpse! My gosh I am morose and maudlin this morning.


Stitching done, none! I think today is the day for it. Yesterday I went up to Hobby Lobby and purchased 10 Simplicity designs for 99¢ each. I bought a couple of handbag patterns, a jumper and kimono pattern. I will add them to my Excel database later.


They also had candles on sale 50% off. I bought 3 Bella pillar candles for the $10 Secret Santa limit for work. I ran over to give my Mom a kiss and was telling her about them. I brought them in and we made a 2½" wide sleeve around each with pretty paper and tied jute around the middle of the sleeve. She had these cute animal charms and I chose jade, cream and yellowish elephants and threaded them onto the ends of the jute. They look really nice.


Yesterday was a pretty nice 45° outside. The Girlz are outside now and the sun is shining brightly and I bet it will melt a lot more of the hateful snow out there. I just can't believe how those dreadful flakes like to gang up on us in the winter.


I did add 3 new must haves to my Stitchy Poo Gal's Needlework Wish List. I know you must be shocked and horrified at my confession. I just cannot help myself, the new Drawn Thread designs are to die for!


Alas the time has come for the Lilac Thicket to fold in on itself to cocoon me from the perils and madness of the outside world. Ah yes, I am but a humble hermit inside it's fragrant branches. Until next time, I send my salutations.

Movies & Freebies

This is the free design that I am anxious to get with my FOMC selection that I talked about yesterday. This design can also be found in the archives at Wichelt.com I think it is cute.

I have been dreaming about the Dupioni silk and the special is over at midnight. I was thinking about getting 1 yard of it to make a handbag. I have never worked with silk before and think it might be fun. I have a pattern which I think would be nice that came in a sewing magazine much earlier in the year.

Netflix movies that I watched on my days off were Wall-E, Charlie Chan at the Opera and Laura. Wall-E was sort of cute until he was sucked up to the space ship which was inhabited by a bunch of fat people who sat on their asses and robots waited on them hand and foot. I was really put off by that scenario. Why are fat people always lazy in the movies and cartoons? I am fat but not lazy and I really am offended by this characterization. Charlie Chan was a typical Chan movie only this time Boris Karloff was his adversary. Number One son wore a suit of armour through this movie and helped "Pop" by skulking about the theater looking for the murderer of 2 people. It is a 1936 movie and I enjoyed it. The 1944 movie "Laura" starring Gene Tierny and Dana Andrews was a nice movie. I found the biography of Gene Tierny very interesting. The movie premise was that Laura (Tierny) was loved by many men is murdered. A New York detective (Andrews) falls under her spell as he investigates her death.

The next 3 movies I received yesterday are "The Manson Family". Charlie Manson fascinates me with his mental health behaviors. I was 12 years old when his hippy group murdered Sharon Tate. I was horrified with the idea that his group "Creepy Crawled" residences without the sleeping people knowing they were there. "Indiscreet" with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman and the last movie is really disc one of the wonderful British comedy "Red Dwarf".

There is a cute friend free design on Cross Stitch Happy. I was looking at the LagattaC blog and there are some cute free designs offered on the french sites. Well I suppose I will close the Lilac Thicket for now since I am so blasted cold! Happy Sunday!

Days off and Day Dreams

This is the first installment of the 2009 EMS Stitch Along, An Advent Calender. I am not much of a fan of Advent Calenders but I really like the colors and the small motifs. I look forward to seeing more of this design. I look forward to 2009, don't you?

Pictured above is the 2009 Boo Club Double Flip It. I like this very much being a Halloween Aficionado does that surprise me....NO!! I think I will join the club at Stitches 'n Things.

I am getting a great color in my Fabric of the Month Club from Stitches 'n Things. It is 28ct Ruby Wine Cashel Linen . Also there is a freebie coming this month I am excited about too! From BIZZI CREATIONS -- 'Tis The Season!

I have done some work on my Prairie Schooler. My days off were filled with sleep (I was having a fluttery heart problem), shopping for bra's at Lane Bryant with my Mother which are to be my Christmas gifts, watching movies which I will discuss tomorrow (gotta have something to yak about), cleaning house (oh the joy and pain in the posterior of it all), laundry at the laundromat (the lady was 25 minutes late opening the darn place, but it feels good to have clean underwear) and sewing a rice filled warmer for my Marilyn.

Yes my 3 days off were filled with lots of little things. I also had a devil of a time printing off 3 cute calendars for 2009, it's my computer. Plus I fell asleep before Ghost Hunters came on. DARN IT!!!!

Well it is quite cold here in the Lilac Thicket, winter is definitely upon us. My hands and feet are definitely victims of the cold as there is no insulating layer of fat on them to keep them warm. I am wearing a long sleeve tee shirt and a long sleeve sweat shirt and I am freezing in the darn call center.

It felt so good to sit in front of my sewing machine. I have been dreaming of all the fabric that I have seen on FABRIC.COM and imagining all the lovely things I could create. They have Dupioni Silk on sale for 6.98 a yard and it is 54" wide. Gosh it has a beautiful. All the colors are so rich and wonderful. I was thinking what beautiful front room drapes it would make and also a very simple but elegant dress, empire waist and short sleeves! Dream on!!

Well, I suppose I will sign off from the Lilac Thicket and try to light a fire to keep myself warm. Have a wonderful weekend.